Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 180

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(CIVIL WAR --MISSOURI.) L.B. Parmalee. Letter describing Bushwhacker guerrilla combat in northern Missouri. Autograph Letter Signed to Charles L. Stilson of Owen's Grove, IA. 4 pages, 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, on one folding sheet; short separations at intersection of folds. With original stamped envelope bearing inked Shelbyville postmark dated 21 November. Shelbyville, MO, [21 November 1862?]
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The author, Louis Brooks Parmalee (1817-1873), was a New Jersey-born merchant and apparently a Unionist, though in Missouri in this period it is sometimes difficult to determine who is on which side. He writes to a friend in Union Iowa: "Saturday a part of the company to which Slane & Ely Bertrum belonged left St. Jo to join Glover. Bertrum, two Dutchmen, and one by the name of Stoner got off at Shelbina to stop at home for a few days. . . . Nearly sundown Bertram and one of the Dutchmen walking together, Stoner & the other a little behind them, when bang bang bang went sum guns close to them. Three of them got over the fence as soon as possable. Tthe Dutchman had a shot gun and one of the others a pistol. . . . Burtram cums home, sends for Dr. Preast to pick out sum shot out of him, one in the face left side, one in the left arm. . . . The Dutchman that was with Burtrum was badly shot in the sholder with a ball and other parts with shot. . . . George Galashy, Arch Brant, Hite Shakelford left about a month ago with George's niggers expecting to go south, found it rather inconvenient to cross the Missouri. . . . Last Friday week there was a returning Pike's Peaker passed through town with four mules & a wagon. As he got neer Waren, two took advantage of him and shot him, so he has since died. . . . You perseive from these things that we have not as quiet times here as we should have. Bushwhackers are passing and repassing from day to day in town, but do not get molested here in the least."